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Green Roofs Coming to Emerald City

SEATTLE, WA-With a serious energy crunch up and down the West Coast, power-saving rooftop gardens are beginning to garner attention. City officials here are placing them on two new government buildings and about a dozen older parking garages.

By Janet Parker | Updated on January 29, 2001

SEATTLE, WA-According to a fourth quarter report from the Bellevue office of Grubb & Ellis, a power crisis is looming over the market here. A few times so far this winter, the shortage of power here has come close to the implementation of emergency measures already experienced in California. Add to that the fever-pitch building boom–several million sf of which has yet to come on line–and power-hungry data-storage facilities proliferating faster than new power plants, and we could be building our way into darkness.

One upside to the situation may be the more rapid adoption of “green” building practices, especially the easiest and least expensive ones, like the green roof–rooftop gardens, complete with soil, that through natural thermal insulation keep structures cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter, lower heating and air-conditioning, saving money and energy.

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